1. Technical Field
An eco-friendly liquid composition for treatment of stained fabric is disclosed. The composition may include a sugar-based nonionic surfactant such as alkyl polyglycoside, water, and optional ingredients such as a small amount of anionic surfactant, detersive enzyme, boron compound, fragrance, pH adjusting agent, and preservative. The composition may be essentially free of alcoholic solvents, propellant, bleach, bleach precursor and bleach catalyst. At least 60% of the total surfactant included in the composition may be the alkyl polyglycoside.
2. Description of the Related Art
Conventional laundering processes using automatic washing machines are known in the art. Those processes, when using commercial detergents, are generally effective in removing everyday stains from laundry items but are sometimes insufficient to remove tough stains such as motor oil, blood, coffee, ink, dirt, grass, lard, etc. In order to effectively remove such tough stains, it is desirable to pre-treat (or pre-spot) the stains before the laundry items are washed. Pretreatment compositions are typically delivered to the stain and the formulation-treated stain is rubbed or scrubbed so that the stain is loosened, dislodged, or dissolved. Thereafter, the treated stain is effectively removed by a conventional laundering process.
Typical laundry pretreatment compositions for removing tough stains generally contain considerable amounts of oxidant and/or bleach components. The bleach component may be ozone, hypochlorides, halogen oxides, peroxides or other conventional bleaching agents. The bleaching component may also be a bleach catalyst that facilitates oxidation reactions by involving oxygen in the air. One problem associated with bleaching components is that they may not be compatible with other essential ingredients of the composition. Further, the bleach component may also cause discoloration of delicate fabrics if not timely rinsed with water. Therefore, bleach components may need to be excluded in some pretreatment compositions.
In recent years, there has been a significant amount of global consumer awareness in “green”, i.e. eco-friendly, household or personal care products. As a result, increasing efforts have been directed to the development of cleaning compositions with desirable ecological profiles. For example, products containing ingredients that are derived from natural and renewable sources, as well as products that are biodegradable in natural environments, have been the focus of this global “eco-friendly” trend.
As most household cleaning compositions contain one or more surfactants to improve its detergency and/or solubilize other ingredients of the composition, eco-friendly surfactants have been developed. In particular, sugar-based nonionic surfactants, such as alkyl polyglycosides, have been used in household cleaning products. Those surfactants are generally obtained from renewable plant-derived raw materials, such as coconut oil and starch, and offer good detergent performance when included in a cleaning composition. Moreover, alkyl polyglycosides are generally considered mild to human skin and pose little, if any, risk to human health or the environment.
One polyglycoside-containing hard surface cleaning composition includes 0.001-2% protease enzyme and 3-10% nonionic surfactant, such as alkyl polyglycoside. The composition also includes up to 3% borax in the composition as enzyme stabilizer, as well as 1-30% citric acid or sodium citrate as a builder. The composition may further include 5-40% anionic surfactant, such as alkyl sulfates, alkyl ether sulfates, or alkyl ester sulfonates. However, unlike the alkyl polyglycosides discussed above, the anionic surfactants generally are not prepared from raw materials derived from natural plants. Furthermore, this cleaning composition does not include any preservative and is not purported to pretreat fabrics before washing.
One polyglycoside-based detergent composition includes 1-55% nonionic surfactant such as alkyl polyglycoside, 0.001-5% protease enzyme, and 0-3% borax. However, the composition also contains 0.25-5% alkoxylated quaternary ammonium (“AQA”) cationic surfactant, which is not prepared from raw materials derived from natural, renewable sources. Moreover, the composition is added directly to a washing machine or dishwasher, rather than being used for pretreatment of tough stains on soft or hard surfaces.
In some cleaning compositions, alkyl polyglycoside may be blended with other nonionic surfactants derived non-natural, non-renewable sources. For example, a composition with enhanced enzyme activity may include a surfactant blend of an alkyl ether sulfonate, a linear alcohol ethoxylate, and an alkyl polyglycoside, such as Glucopon® 600UP, wherein the amount of polyglycoside in the surfactant blend ranges from 33% to 50%. The composition may also contain 0.1-10% protease enzyme and 2.14% sodium borate (borax) as an enzyme stabilizer. However, neither the alkyl ether sulfonate nor the linear alcohol ethoxylate is prepared from raw materials derived from renewable plant sources.
Finally, alkyl polyglycoside has been used in a hard surface cleaning and bleaching composition containing peroxide and a bleach catalyst. The cleaning composition may also contain 0.5-15% alkyl polyglycoside, 0.1-1.2% protease enzyme, 0-3% borax, and citric acid and sodium hydroxide as pH adjusting agent. The cleaning formulation does not include any preservative, presumably because of the presence of the peroxide rendering the use of preservatives unnecessary. As discussed above, this composition may not be suitable for pretreatment of fabric stains because the bleach component may cause discoloration and/or other adverse effects to the fabric.
Hence, there is a need for an eco-friendly liquid laundry pretreatment composition. Moreover, there is a need for a pretreatment composition that contains a nonionic surfactant prepared from raw materials derived from natural renewable plant sources. Finally, there is a need for an aqueous, eco-friendly pretreatment composition that performs comparably to existing pretreatment compositions.